Who We Are
Six adjacent neighborhoods, one organization holding the whole plan, and a measure of success written in who still lives here in twenty years.
Since [20XX], Northside Initiative has held the plan for six historic Northside neighborhoods — convening the partners, sequencing the work, and answering for the result.
Our approach draws on the neighborhood-scale model developed by Purpose Built Communities, which has been applied in cities across the country. [Any formal affiliation with Purpose Built Communities to be confirmed before publication.]
We sit between residents and the institutions holding the money, and we run four fronts at once: housing, education, wellness, and jobs. Running them one at a time is why so much neighborhood investment washes out.
Northside Initiative is formed to hold a single shared plan for Birmingham's Northside, convening residents, funders, and nonprofit partners behind it.
Residents complete the first neighborhood-wide listening process, setting the priorities that still anchor our strategy: housing, education, wellness, and jobs.
The first phase of mixed-income housing breaks ground, pairing new construction with permanent affordability protections for legacy homeowners.
Critical repair work begins for long-time Northside homeowners, funded through the City of Birmingham's owner-occupied repair program.
Our education partners open a neighborhood-serving early learning program, completing the earliest link in the cradle-to-career pathway.
The Economic Vitality initiative adds skills training, job placement, and small business support to the strategy.
Invested in legacy homeowners
Families served
Concentrated poverty on the Northside was engineered — by redlining, by the interstate, by plant closures. It can be un-engineered the same way: deliberately.
Donate NowCome work a Saturday. Homeowner repair crews, vacant lot clean-ups, and tutoring all run on volunteer hours.
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